Smugglers discount boat fares: Dutton

People smugglers have discounted the price of an asylum seeker boat journey from Indonesia to Australia from $10,000 to $1000 and are struggling to find customers, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says.

Mr Dutton attributed the result to the federal government's tough record on border protection during a national security conference in Canberra on Wednesday night.

"We know people smugglers continue to ply their dangerous criminal trade and are looking for the earliest sign that we might waver, and we must not," Mr Dutton said.